A major restoration project to repair and enhance the bells of St Mary’s Church in Chirk has made a contribution to reduce carbon emissions.

The bell ringers of St Mary’s Church have raised tens of thousands of pounds to restore the existing ring of six bells and augment them to a ring of eight. As a requirement of their funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) they have had to assess the project’s impact on the environment and offer mitigation.

The Tower Captain at St Mary’s Church, Peter Furniss, said: “To understand what we could do locally to mitigate against the project’s impact on the environment, one of the bell ringers involved undertook some research. He came up with a number of proposals and one of these involved tree planting.

“One of the members of the Bell Restoration Project Steering Committee works at Chirk Castle and drew the committee’s attention to a major tree replanting scheme being undertaken by The National Trust. This seemed to perfectly fit the aspirations of the Committee who unanimously agreed to make a donation of £500 towards the tree replanting scheme at Chirk Castle.”

There is a long historical connection between St Mary’s Church and Chirk Castle. For many centuries the Castle was owned by the Myddleton family, who were generous benefactors to St Mary’s. The evidence of their generosity can still be seen in the church today and one of their direct descendants is a Patron of the Bell Restoration Scheme.

The existing bells at St Mary’s Church left the church for restoration earlier this week (18 March) and are expected to be back in church in May. A service is blessing will take place on Sunday 11 May and the bells will be returned to the bell tower over the following two weeks.

In the photographer below is: Keith Griffith, Head Ranger, Chirk Castle, Peter Furniss, Chris Parker, James Neale, Beverley Furniss, Clare Morris, Ian Wiltshire, Deryl Crocombe, ringer and National Trust employee, Lindsey Gordon, Operations Manager, Chirk Castle.